#TwitterSmarter Podcast: Twitter Strategies to Amplify Social Selling with Mindi Rosser [Episode 40]

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Mindi Rosser is a Social Selling Strategist and Social Media Marketing Manager splitting her time between her own consulting company as well as The Conversion Company Network, a digital marketing agency that focuses on B2B marketing to engage prospects and generate leads.

In this episode, Mindi shares helpful social selling strategies that she uses on Twitter. I love her advice on building trust and sharing great content. It’s all about getting prospects to Know, Like and Trust you. She recommends using Twitter as an indirect sales tool, like as a conversation starter to connect with people. You’re going to learn helpful tips from Mindi that will help ramp up your Twitter marketing and give you a fresh, new perspective.

Episode Highlights:

  • It’s not about the number of followers, it’s about the engagement.
  • Show up, get excited about Twitter and hop onto Twitter chats.
  • 80% of it is showing up and 20% is having a dynamic strategy.
  • Twitter allows us to be more dynamic to get results.
  • Share great content. Talk to people. Be a conversation starter.
  • Mindi’s most important tip for utilizing Twitter for social selling is showing up. Hear her further explain this in the podcast.
  • Find out Mindi’s “one-two punch” strategy for collecting email addresses on social media. It’s not what you’d think!
  • And learn which tools she uses for “requeueing,”  a technique where you can create a tweet once and then have it recycle through again and again. I use SocialJukebox for this but Mindi shares two other tools that do it as well. Even I learn new things on the podcast!

My Favorite Quotes:

“I feel like Twitter allows us to be more dynamic with our social selling strategy and implement our plan and get results and start talking to buyers.”

“People really have to know you. They have to start liking you. And then they will begin to trust you. And you do that on Twitter by sharing great content, by talking with people, by answering questions, and using Twitter not as a direct sales tool, but a little bit more of an indirect sales tool and almost like a conversation starter and a way to connect with others.”

“Building Twitter organically and being strategic about the type of content that you share will attract the right followers to you.”

“It’s not as much about the number of followers as it is about the engagement that I’m having with the followers and having the right followers. So I’ve stopped focusing so much on getting the biggest following and trying to gain massive amounts of followers. It’s more about the engagements that I am having.”

Tools and Links to Things Mentioned:

  • TweetDeck – This is Mindi’s #1 go-to for monitoring conversations and her Twitter lists and also for interacting with people in real-time. She also recommends using it for Twitter chats.
  • SproutSocial – social media management tool created to help businesses grow their social media presence.
  • AgoraPulse – all-in-one solution for social media managers. Mindi likes the metrics and the new feature called “requeue” that allows evergreen content to be shared to Twitter multiple times automatically after adding it only once.
  • CoSchedule – all-in-one editorial calendar for content marketing and social scheduling. Mindi uses this for her blog and along with ReQueue. It’s their social automation tool that uses data-driven intelligence to reshare your best messages to every major social network. Mindi points out that CoSchedule will give you 50% off an entire year if you write a review on your blog.
  • SocialJukebox – automated tool for social networks. I use this for my “evergreen” content.
  • Article: Twitter might build a paid subscription service for power users
  • Article: Write a review about CoSchedule and save 50%

How to Reach Mindi:

You can reach Mindi Rosser on Twitter @MindiRRosser, email mindi@mindirosser.com, through her website www.mindirosser.com or connect with her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/mindirosser.

Your Call-to-Action:

Your call-to-action for this episode is to sell without selling. Yes, you heard me right. Sell. And whatever it is you sell – a product or service, whatever it is, I want you to first educate your buyers and prospects. Be a resource and help. Offer a demo or free trial. Do something that attracts their attention in a way that is not salesy. Try this and let me know how this works out by sending me a tweet @MadalynSklar.

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Win a Love Handle!

Congrats to Gary Stockton! He won a #TwitterSmarter LoveHandle! See his review below.

Thanks For Your Attention!

I appreciate you listening to this podcast, and would be extremely grateful if you would take a moment to rate & review it on iTunes. By doing this, more people will be able to benefit from the tips and tools shared in this #TwitterSmarter podcast series. Please also subscribe to this podcast while you’re there. It will ensure you don’t miss an episode!

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Transcript:

Mindi Rosser:
Hey this is Mindi Rosser, social business strategist, blogging at mindirosser.com where I talk about systemizing, social selling, and social marketing programs to generate better social ROI and you’re listening to the Twitter Smarter Podcast with Madalyn Sklar.

Madalyn Sklar:
Hey, hold that tweet. This is episode number 40, with Mindi Rosser.

Announcer:
Welcome to the Twitter Smarter Podcast, where you get the best Twitter tips from the pros. Twitter expert, Madalyn Sklar, wants to help you take it up a notch on Twitter. In each episode of this podcast, you’ll walk away with actionable tips that you can start using right now. So are you ready to get Twitter smarter?

Madalyn Sklar:
This episode is brought to you by the Twitter Smarter Twitter Chat. Did you know this podcast had a chat? If not, you are in for a treat. Every Thursday at one o’clock eastern, I host the Twitter Smarter Chat. It’s a great community of people looking to connect, learn, and share Twitter tips. I hope to see you there. Now, let’s get onto today’s episode. I have such a great guest for you today. Her name is Mindi Rosser. She’s a social selling strategist and social media marketing manager splitting her time between her own consulting company as well as the conversion company network. It’s a digital marketing agency that focuses on B2B marketing to engage prospects and generate leads. In this episode, Mindi shares helpful social selling strategies that she uses on Twitter. I love her advice on building trust and sharing great content. It’s all about getting prospects to know, like, and trust you. She recommends using Twitter as an indirect sales tool, like as a conversation starter to connect with people. You’re gonna learn helpful tips from Mindi that will help you ramp up your Twitter marketing and give you fresh new perspective. So let’s go ahead and jump right in. Here is my interview with Mindi Rosser.

Hey, Mindi. Thank you so much for joining the Twitter Smarter podcast. I am so thrilled to have you today as my special guest. The question I have for you is what are your best Twitter tips.

Mindi Rosser:
Ah great question. I guess with Twitter, we can pretty much talk all day about our favorite Twitter tips, but I guess the first thing that comes to mind with Twitter for me is social selling and I feel like, with Twitter, social selling is one aspect that people don’t often talk about or don’t quite know how to use social selling and Twitter together because social selling is usually associated with LinkedIn, but I feel like there’s such a big opportunity on Twitter with social selling because it’s no longer enough for us to just invest in social media marketing and hope that our inbound strategy generates leads who turn into our prospects and buyers. It feels like it has to be much more dynamic and I feel like Twitter allows us to be more dynamic with our social selling strategy and actually implement our plan and get results and actually start talking to buyers.

Madalyn Sklar:
I like that a lot. So how did you get into the whole social selling?

Mindi Rosser:
I guess with social selling, it kind of happened to me because I was starting to do social media marketing and I felt like there’s something I’m missing here with Twitter and there’s something that I’m just not doing and I know I need to take it to the next level. I felt like, for me, social selling was an evolution of social media marketing where I was actually taking what I was learning in social media on Twitter and actually applying it more strategically. I feel like social selling is just a little bit more strategic application of social media marketing principles. So you’re still talking with people. You’re still sharing your messages. But you’re doing it in a smarter way and I feel like Twitter allows us to do that and we can have those one-on-one conversations or we can talk broadly to people because of the medium of Twitter. I feel like there’s so much potential for social selling when it comes to Twitter.

Madalyn Sklar:
So how do we get on Twitter and sell without selling?

Mindi Rosser:
I feel like there’s so much emphasis on the selling part when people think of social selling and I feel like there’s more of an emphasis on the social part. It really comes back to educating your buyers or educating your prospects and whether they are going to become your buyers immediately, maybe sometime down the road, maybe they’re just curious and they’re just looking, I feel like being a reputable resource and being on Twitter and really helping people and building those relationships before trying to sell anything is really critical. You have to build that trust and, you said it, it’s the know, like, and trust you. People really have to know you. They have to start liking you. And then they will begin to trust you and you do that on Twitter by sharing great content, by talking with people, by answering questions, and using Twitter not as a direct sales tool, but a little bit more of an indirect sales tool and almost like a conversation starter and a way to connect with others.

Madalyn Sklar:
I like that a lot. Now, one thing we’re always talking about in marketing is we need to be out collecting email addresses. How do we do that on Twitter to build up our list of prospects? Should we try to collect their emails or just try to just stay with connecting with them and then move them … We want to move them out of Twitter at some point, if they’re a prospect, so how are you doing that? What’s your strategy?

Mindi Rosser:
I feel like, with me, personally, and with a lot of the clients that I work with, we actually jump over to LinkedIn and then move it out. We’ll find the people on Twitter, we’ll go connect with them on LinkedIn and then we will get their email address that way. And so it gives us a one-two punch. It gives us a really good approach so people start recognizing us across social channels and that’s the way we’ve done it. You can also collect email addresses directly on Twitter. I know you can run Twitter ad campaigns. We don’t do as much of that. We usually like to hop them over to LinkedIn and have a chat with them there, do some messaging, and then get their email.

Madalyn Sklar:
That’s interesting. So you prefer that over say Twitter DM?

Mindi Rosser:
Yes, I use Twitter DM a little bit, but not as much for a lot of the prospects I’ve been working with. A little bit more B2B than B2C. I think B2C direct messaging is probably a bit more effective. We’ve experiment with both and found that the hop-over to LinkedIn was actually a little easier than the DMs. We were finding that a lot of people weren’t actually answering the DMs.

Madalyn Sklar:
That’s not good. We don’t want that, right?

Mindi Rosser:
No.

Madalyn Sklar:
It’s like crickets. It’s always a bad thing. Now how long have you been on Twitter? How long have you been using it?

Mindi Rosser:
I think it’s since 2010, I think. So that’s been about like 7 years or so. So it’s been a while.

Madalyn Sklar:
Yeah, that is a while. How have you built up your followers on there? Has there been some kind of formula for attracting new followers?

Mindi Rosser:
Ah good question. I think, for me, for the most part it’s been pretty organic. I’ve done some of the, especially when they first came out, with the buy 5,000 followers. I’ve fallen for a couple of those scams in the past, trying to build my following too quickly, but I feel, for the most part, building it organically and being strategic about the type of content that you share will also attract the right followers to you. So I’ve changed my brand quite a few times since I got on Twitter in 2010 and each time I’ve shifted, I’ve lost some followers and gained other ones and I still have some hanging around from when I was tweeting about books and authors in 2010. I feel like it’s an evolution and, to me, it’s not as much about the number of followers as it is about the engagement that I’m having with the followers and having the right followers. So I’ve stopped focusing so much on getting the biggest following and trying to gain massive amounts of followers. It’s more about the engagements that I am having.

Madalyn Sklar:
So quality not the quantity.

Mindi Rosser:
Correct.

Madalyn Sklar:
I like that a lot. For those who are listening, let’s say you got the marketers out there that are like, “Wow this is all really good stuff and this is stuff I can use.” What would be the most important tip you can give them when it comes to utilizing Twitter for social selling?

Mindi Rosser:
I think the first thing would be showing up. I think a lot of people get really excited about Twitter and they do all this tweeting. They post all the time. They get their social scheduling tool. They’re hopping into Twitter chats and I feel like they lose that momentum. Either they don’t get the results that they want or they don’t stick with it long enough to get those results and they flounder and either just give up and quit Twitter or pop in periodically and don’t really stick with their plan. I feel like showing up is going to get you there. I feel like 80% of it at least is showing up and the other 20% would be having a really good strategy and having a dynamic strategy. When Twitter changes, when things happen with your business, if you’re rebranding, if you’re launching something new, you really need to be on top of things with Twitter and make sure that your audience and followers know what you’re doing and position yourself accordingly.

Madalyn Sklar:
These are great tips. Wow. I love them. So another question for you. When it comes to tools and apps, do you have some that just really help you manage your Twitter best and help you do all the things you’re trying to do?

Mindi Rosser:
Oh yes. TweetDeck is my number one go-to for monitoring conversations and my Twitter list and interacting in real time. It’s also great for Twitter chats. It’s definitely the one that I log into several times a day. I have all my clients on it. They love it, too, because they’re actually able to see what’s happening and I feel like the dashboard in TweetDeck is outstanding, especially for being a free tool.

Madalyn Sklar:
Did you hear that Twitter is thinking about having a paid version of TweetDeck?

Mindi Rosser:
I had not heard that.

Madalyn Sklar:
Brand new. It’s like hot off the press. I think a day or two ago, they’re saying that their planning to come up with a premium version where you get more out of it for a fee and I think that would be really awesome.

Mindi Rosser:
Sign me up. I’m all over that.

Madalyn Sklar:
Awesome. So TweetDeck is your number one. Are there any other tools that you like?

Mindi Rosser:
Yeah some other ones I like. I like Sprout Social and Agorapulse. I feel like they do very similar things. I’ve just gotten into Agorapulse and have been experimenting a bit there. They have a feature that I love, which is the requeueing of evergreen content so I love that feature and so I’ve been playing with that and Agorapulse. I feel like their metrics and their reporting features are really, really beefy. So both of those tools I feel like are good for agencies or solopreneurs or entrepreneurs that are really trying to get the most out of their metrics and analytics.

Madalyn Sklar:
Can you explain when you say requeueing of evergreen content. Can you explain what you mean by that?

Mindi Rosser:
Good question. So with requeueing, it’s creating a tweet once and then having it recycle through. So it’s getting posted to your Twitter account multiple times and you can set how often you want it to go out to your account. So it’s almost like being able to set a social media campaign once and then just have that cycle through. Your old content can be shared multiple times over the span of three months, six months, a year, longer if you have some that’s really good, but for most of us, I think a year is probably the max.

Madalyn Sklar:
Right. I do my evergreen content with Social Jukebox. It used to be called Tweet Jukebox and now they rebranded as Social Jukebox so it’s not just Twitter, it’s Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook and so I do the same thing. Anything that had this evergreen, something that I want to share multiple times, I’ve put it on a schedule. You set it and forget it. So an example would be like when you were on my Twitter Smarter chat, I do a Twitter chat recap so I take the recap that goes into my blog and I’ll do the tweet one time in Social Jukebox and just post it as a regular tweet and then it just runs on autopilot so it’ll keep running regularly, which gets you extra promotion. It gives me extra promotion for the chat. Everybody wins.

Mindi Rosser:
Yes, it’s a win-win. Another tool that does that really well that I also use is CoSchedule. They have an editorial calendar so I use that for my blog and then it ties really nicely in with a tool that they have called requeue and it does the same thing. I like to actually set, for my own content, I like to requeue content within CoSchedule’s requeue feature because you can kind of set it more like a social campaign and it covers all your social channels, too, so that’s another good requeueing tool if you’re using CoSchedule already.

Madalyn Sklar:
Very nice. CoSchedule is a pretty popular app or tool. It does a lot of things for scheduling. They provide a lot of templates and tools within the tool.

Mindi Rosser:
Yes it’s very beefy, too, but it’s also very user-friendly and easy on the eyes, which helps.

Madalyn Sklar: Nice. Now all of these you’re talking about, TweetDeck, Sprout Social, Agorapulse, CoSchedule, I know they all have paid accounts, do they all have free accounts as well?

Mindi Rosser:
I think with Sprout Social and Agorapulse, you can start with like a 30 day free trial and if you ask their team to finagle that for you too and maybe make it longer or if you have a lot of different accounts, both of their teams are really helpful that I’ve found in working with you on figuring out a plan that’ll work for you. Then with CoSchedule, I think it’s also free for 30 days and then it rolls into a paid plan and then one little trick about CoSchedule is you get 50% off if you write a positive review of using their tool. It’s a 50% off for an entire year so I did that to cut my costs down.

Madalyn Sklar:
That’s nice. Sure. Anytime we can cut our costs, that’s always a great thing. I love this. This is super helpful with these tools and knowing. I always tell people that I work with and anybody that listens to me out there, in Podcast land, try the tools, see what works for you. Sign up for the free account. See if you like it. You may like HootSuite better than TweetDeck or you might like TweetDeck better than HootSuite. You won’t know until you sign up and try them both out and see which one works for you. I like when these offer a free trial so you get that whole try before you buy.

Mindi Rosser:
I agree. I would not buy before I tried, that’s for sure.

Madalyn Sklar:
Yeah. This has been such incredible information, Mindi. I really appreciate you taking the time to share all of this valuable tips and information with me and with the community. How can our listeners get in touch with you?

Mindi Rosser: The best way to find me is at mindirosser.com. You can also email me, mindi@mindirosser.com. Or tweet me @mindirrosser or connect with me on LinkedIn. Those are my favorite channels.

Madalyn Sklar:
Awesome. Thank you so much, Mindi. It was so great having you.

Mindi Rosser:
Oh thanks for having me.

Madalyn Sklar:
What a great interview with Mindi Rosser. She shared really helpful tips and advice. I loved how she said that 80% is just showing up and 20% is having a dynamic strategy. It’s important to show up every day and be visible. It’s easy to give up when you’re not getting the results you want, but don’t give up. Keep yourself visible. Tweet daily. Get seen on Twitter chats regularly. Remember that this is a long game. Be a resource. Help people and educate them. It goes a long way. Just watch my Twitter feed and you’ll see what I’m talking about. On this podcast, we take the notes for you so be sure to go to madalynsklar.com/twittersmarter40 because this is episode number 40. So that’s madalynsklar.com/twittersmarter40. Your call to action for this episode is to sell without selling. Yes, you heard me right. Sell. And whatever it is you sell, whether it’s a product or service. Whatever it is, I want you to first educate your buyers and prospects. Be a resource and help. Offer a demo or a free trial. Do something that attracts their attention in a way that is not sales-y. Try this and let me know how it works out by sending me a tweet @madalynsklar.

Now, you can reach Mindi on Twitter @mindirrosser. That’s M-I-N-D-I. So mindirrosser. You can also reach her by email, mindi@mindirosser.com as well as her website mindirosse.com. Before we go, I want to thank everyone who’s taken the time to rate and review this podcast on iTunes. It really means the world to me. I’m doing a little giveaway. I want to offer you something really cool if you take the time to review the podcast. I have this really neat thing. It’s called a love handle and they have it printed up where it says Twitter Smart on it. It’s super cool. It’s a thing that you put on your phone. It’s like a grip so that way you can easily do one-handed texting and tweeting and of course selfies. I love mine and if you want to see what it looks like, go over to my website, madalynsklar.com/lovehandle. So I’m gonna do a giveaway and every week, I’m going to pick a winner. All you gotta do is do a review. Go over to iTunes, rate and review this podcast, an honest rating and review.

My most recent winner is Gary Stockton. He wrote an awesome review of this podcast. Here’s what he said. “I look forward to each new episode of this podcast with anticipation because Madalyn explains Twitter like nobody else. She has a way of explaining the platform that is easy to understand and offers a mix of both practical advice and great ideas.” Gary, thank you for doing that. I really appreciate this awesome review and I hope you enjoy your new Twitter Smarter love handle. So, that is it for this episode. Until next time, I’ll see you out on Twitter. Take care everybody.

Announcer:
Thank you for listening to the Twitter Smarter podcast where you get the best Twitter tips from the pros. Stay in touch with Madalyn on Twitter, @madalynsklar, or through her website, madalynsklar.com.